


Time And Time Again

by LapsedPacifist



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst and Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 00:58:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13112457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LapsedPacifist/pseuds/LapsedPacifist
Summary: Lance has done something stupid. That wasn't surprising.It landed him and Hunk on a magic trial, consisting of different tests of their magic abilities. That was also sadly not surprising.Keith was there.Thatcame out of nowhere.Lance was going to kick his ass as soon as he got everything - namely, his magic - under control again.Or: Keith only wanted to see Shiro again.





	Time And Time Again

**Author's Note:**

> yooo a magic au? under 10 000 words and without extensive world-building? I keep surprising myself today

“This is all your fault.”

At this point it was almost a reflex for Lance: “No it’s not.”

Then he remembered that it actually was his fault, and more importantly, that he was not talking to Keith, so he let his head slump down into his hands.

“Yeah it is,” he murmured.

Peeking under his fingers he noticed that Hunk was still scowling at him, so he went back to hiding his face. He didn’t like angry Hunk, or a sulking one. But the worst was definitely a disappointed Hunk, and that was exactly what Hunk was right now. He was even giving Lance his best ‘You let me down, bro’ face, and it was that _bro_ that really killed Lance.

“I’m sorry!” he squealed. “I had no idea that _this_ was even a possibility!”

He wavered his hands around to indicate what exactly _this_ meant: the grey cell, with dark purple lighting they were sitting in, their legs chained to the wall under their chairs.

“I told you, specifically, that it was, Lance! And do you know what you said?!” yelled Hunk back.

Lance did not want to know.

“You said, and I quote; _Fuck the Rules, man, it’s not like anyone ever pays attention to them anyways._ Well, apparently they _do,_ or we wouldn’t be sitting here!”

Lance cringed. Yep, there was it.

“There’s no need to do the voice,” he said.

Hunk only gave him a look that promised bodily harm: “Lance, if they take my magic away _before_ I am able to open my own restaurant, you will die!”

Wait, what? Did he just hear that right? “Take your magic away?” Lance asked out loud.

Hunk only stared at him, his mouth open in a silent scream.

Well, silent only for the first few seconds.

“ _You don’t know?!_ Lance!”

“I’m sorry, man! I know that they can, hypothetically, do-”

“ _Hypothetically_?! They do it all the time! Don’t you pay any attention to the news, _at all?_ ”

“-but would they seriously take it away for something as stupid as this?”

“Aha!” yelled Hunk: “You admitted it was stupid!”

“Well, it’s definitely stupid now,” huffed Lance.

“You are the stupid one,” said Hunk.

“You both are idiots, so shut up!” snapped a new voice.

“ _You shut-_ ” started Lance, then whipped his head around, just like Hunk, to the source of the voice, peering deeper into the cell. They had no idea that there was someone else in the cell with them. Why didn’t they announce their presence sooner?

“Just who exactly are you?” Lance asked. They peered into the semi darkness, as the only light that they had was coming from outside the cell through the door, and it didn’t quite reach all corners of the cell.

Chains rattled as two fiery, huge eyes suddenly glinted and turned towards them, towards Lance.

A squeak escaped him, and he quickly placed hands over his mouth to stifle it, but too late. “Show yourself, monster,” he muttered.

Hunk gave him an unimpressed half-glare, and turned towards the mysterious darkling.

“Hello,” he said. “Who are you?”

The darkness merely scoffed in response: “Why should I tell you?”

“Because why not? This dumbass over here doesn’t actually mean half of the things he is saying. I promise you he isn’t always as annoying as he is right now.”

“Hey!” yelled Lance, outraged. How could Hunk just _betray_ him like this?

“Well then,” said the cryptic entity, “if he really isn’t all that bad - which, for the record, I am seriously questioning - then why not. You two don’t look like a real threat anyway.”

And with that, the chains rattled again as the shadowy being moved, stepping towards the weak purple light that shone through the door.

It was pretty human shaped, Lance noticed, and not very tall. It had only short, fluffy hair on its head, and he couldn’t see any fangs. Could it be a gremlin? Nah, it was too pink. It definitely looked human. But… Demons came in all shapes and sizes, so there was no way to-

“ _Pidge?!”_ cried out Hunk.

The mysterious being - _Pidge_ \- stopped moving, and looked straight at Hunk: “Wha…?”

“Oh man it is good to see you! I did not expect this, really!”

Pidge - and wasn’t that a lame name for a demon - was still staring at Hunk, unmoving.

“What,” it said slowly, again.

“It’s Hunk, your buddy! We have a whole bunch of classes together? You recently had that huge rant about Immaculate vs Virgin? Man, that was scary!” said Hunk, now smiling. “I haven’t seen you in days, though. Are you alright? Have you been here the whole time?”

“Hold on,” said Lance, “you have classes with _a_ _demon_?”

Both turned to stare at him, and he couldn’t help but feel like he’d just missed something big.

“Pidge is not a demon!” finally said Hunk. “Why would- why would you even think that? He’s _human,_ and an Information wix.”

“Did I really scare you that much?” inquired Pidge, who was a human, apparently, and was now smiling like a predator at him.

“Of course not,” responded Lance, defensively.

“Alright then,” said Pidge.

“You don’t have to sound so sceptic, you know,” he huffed. “Still. Seriously, why are you here?”

But Pidge refused to answer, crossing his arms in front of him.

“You first,” he said.

Hunk opened his mouth, to probably spill everything, the idiot, and Lance sadly knew that the chain wasn’t long enough for him to leap across the room and slam a hand across Hunk’s face to physically keep the embarrassing, humiliating, truly devastating secret _a fucking secret_.

He looked around the cell, mourning. This was about to become the place of his death. _Here lies Lance, that fucking idiot,_ and everything. Were those tears in his eyes?

And then the doors slammed open, interrupting everything, even Lance’s impending doom.

The guards marched into the cell, carrying another body with them. Ignoring the current occupants of the cell they threw the body to the floor, near Hunk’s wall, and chains immediately sprung up from the floor to wrap around the legs.

The guards marched out, the doors slamming behind them, leaving the cell silent.

For a second.

“Hunk! Don’t you dare tell him anything!” yelled Lance, regaining his senses.

“Who’s that?” asked Pidge, scooting closer to the downed body, who was the only one whose chains actually permitted them to get close to the newcomer.

“Oh my god he looked dead! He still looks dead! Pidge, is he breathing?”

“Yes, I am still breathing, _thank you for your concern_ ,” snapped the body, and rolled onto its back.

Lance… Lance knew that voice. And if he had previously quietly been thanking the sudden interruption, he now wished it would never have happened.

“The fuck are you doing here?” he exploded.

Keith, because it simply had to be that fucker, slowly sat up and rubbed the blood off of his face with his hand. When his eyes focused on Lance, he loudly groaned. “Are you fucking kidding me? I am stuck with _you?”_

“I don’t like it either!” snapped Lance. Out of everyone, it had to be that freaking mullet.

“Oh, hey Pidge,” said Keith when he saw the person patiently sitting next to him. “And… Hunk?”

Hunk beamed at him, the traitor: “Yes! You remembered?”

“Of course I remember, I-”

“What!” yelled Lance, suddenly feeling extremely betrayed: “Remember? Hunk, you’ve been gallivanting with the enemy? Are you for real?”

“Lance! The fuck?” yelled Hunk back. “Don’t say that!”

He could hear Pidge leaning closer to Keith and whispering: “What exactly is happening here,” but he couldn’t care less for them.

He was solely focused on Hunk’s backstabbing, that horrible act of treachery from the person he called his best friend/possible future boyfrie-

The room went white.

 

 

This particular floor was pretty okay for sleeping on, discovered Lance.

And a moment later:  _why am I even sleeping oh my lord aren’t we in process of dying?_

He bolted up, then almost fell face-down as his leg cramped and gave out under him, but Hunk caught him in the last possible moment.

“Oh man, I hate magic hangovers,” he mumbled, and opened his eyes again.

The room they were now in was blindingly white, and very big. Outright humongous, they couldn’t even see its ceiling, even with outright staring.

“Be careful, your legs are pretty weak right now,” advised Pidge, who was sitting not too far from them. A couple of meters behind him was Keith, hunched over himself, either sleeping or sulking.

“I noticed,” said Lance. The chains… Wait, they didn’t have the anti-magic chains on anymore! Fucking finally! This was his moment to shine!

He stretched his right arm above his head, focused on his hand, all the feelings and emotions in him sharpening, allowing him to lock straight onto his Source and _pull_ , bringing out all of his magic and...

Nothing happened.

“The fuck?” he intelligently said.

Hunk now pushed him off his lap: “Look at your other hand,” he advised, then dangled his own left hand in front of Lance’s face.

There was a thin bracelet on it, dark grey with purple markings on it. Lance had a very similar one on his left hand as well, and now he could see that Pidge and Keith had them too.

“Not more magic suppressants, I hate that shit,” he murmured, and slowly stood up.

“Where are we?” he asked, looking around.

There was nothing to see, besides the whiteness all around them. It was overwhelmingly empty.

 _“Welcome, dear wix!”_ a voice suddenly boomed all around them. It was loud, extremely, but also perfectly audible and not _too_ loud. Voices like that were usually used for direct mind to mind communication, but a short look around told Lance that the rest of the group heard the voice as well.

 _“Welcome,”_ the voice said again, _“might, however, not be entirely appropriate. We aren’t happy that you are here, you know.”_

“Well, you brought us here!” yelled Lance back.

The voice ignored him: _“You all are here because of one pretty simple reason: you broke a Rule. We don’t care why, how, or even which one. The only thing that matters is that you broke one.”_

There was solemn silence for a moment, and then: _“And for that reason, you will be punished.”_

The silence only lasted for a short moment; “Oh get on with it!” yelled Pidge, looking pretty angry.

_“You will be presented with a series of challenges that you must overcome. Fail to do so, and you will lose not only your magic, but your life as well. Prevail, and you will get your freedom back.”_

“That seems too easy,” said Lance.

“Don’t jinx us!” said Hunk, and punched him in the shoulder.

 _“However,”_ the voice said, and Hunk gave Lance a very dirty look, _“you already have magic suppressants on you. Those can only be taken off if the whole group wishes for it to be taken off - that means that the entire group believes the person doesn’t deserve to suffer, even after finding out what the individual did to get thrown in here.”_

“We are screwed,” mumbled Lance, his eyes jumping to Keith’s slumped form.

_“And another thing: as we are being very generous, in offering to let you go shall you win, there has to be at least one drawback. One of you - we don’t care who - has to stay behind.”_

“Behind? What does that mean?”

_“And that’s it! We would wish you good luck, but it would be kind of hypocritical, so we won’t.”_

With that, the voice went quiet.

“That was pretty vague,” said Hunk.

“Well fuck,” murmured Lance, and the place went blue.

 

 

They were in an endless ocean, water infested with monsters, and no land in sight.

“They are going to bite me, they are going to bite me, they are going to bite me-”

Lance was seriously suffering. He was a great swimmer, loved the ocean, but this particular one was simply _too much._ Was that a shark fin or was he hallucinating from the poison from the jellyfish all around him?

“This isn’t good,” said Keith from somewhere behind Lance, and Lance whirled around, splashing him with water: “What gave you _that_ bright idea, weirdo?”

Keith ignored him in favour of turning to Hunk: “What exactly is your magic? Something to do with organic matter, right?”

“Yes!” perked up Pidge, floating beside Hunk. “That’s the thing!”

“The Circle Of Life,” said Hunk. “That, yeah.”

“We can so use that right now,” said Pidge. “Quick, confess your secret so that we can get that bracelet off of you. Before something eats us.”

“Hunk, you can’t!” pleaded Lance, then yelped as something touched his leg. “Hunk, help!”

“Lance! Stop yelling! You are just making me more nervous!”

“Hunk, you can’t tell!”

“Such drama,” murmured Keith. Pidge snickered next to him, and muttered something suspiciously like: “Much exciting.”

“Oh shut up, you mullet.”

“Lance, if we don’t get that bracelet off, it won’t matter _what_ you did, because you will be dead for real,” said Pidge.

“But!”

Then something even more jelly-like touched his leg, and Lance shuddered. “Oh fuck, this is torture.”

“Lance, I’m telling.”

“Hunk!”

“You aren’t stopping me! We broke the No Life Restoration rule!”

Pidge and Keith looked shocked. Lance looked desperate.

“ _Hunk!_ ”

“Lance talked me into restoring the full life of a mosquito at the same moment he shot it!”

There was complete silence for a moment, and then-

“What?!” yelped Pidge.

“Are you fucking serious,” said Keith.

Lance covered his face with his hands, praying for the sweet release of death.

“That is probably the lamest reason I have ever heard for someone to go on Trial for! The fuck would you break a No Life Restoration rule on a _mosquito?_ ” Pidge looked downright pissed, and with a good reason.

“Only you, Lance,” murmured Keith.

“Why on earth would you do something like that?”

“It was for a bet!” wailed Lance.

“No it wasn’t” said Hunk. “You just wanted to see what would happen if you killed something at the same time I gave it its whole life span back! Even after I told you it was a bad idea, you simply had to see it!”

“Hey, if you hadn’t gone with it, we wouldn’t be here right now!”

“Lance!”

“Something touched my leg again!” yelped Pidge. “Quickly, Hunk, do your thing!”

“My bracelet is still on, I can’t!”

“Which one of you losers doesn’t want Hunk to have his magic back?” Pidge asked, turning to Keith and Lance.

Keith shrugged, and pointed at Lance.

Who was still sulking.

“Lance, the fish _will_ eat you. But if they don’t then I will if _you don’t stop fucking sulking!_ ”

Pidge was seriously angry at that point, anger almost radiating off of him, and Lance could feel it.

“Augh! Damn it! Hunk, I will get you later for this!”

The bracelet disappeared as soon as Lance said that, and Hunk focused.

He even closed his eyes in preparation, calming and centring himself, not doing any more splashing around with his hands.

The sea around them started glowing soft yellow, the strongest just near Hunk and then slowly dissipating. The creatures’ movements were slowing, ripples disappearing. There was sweat on Hunk’s face, but he pushed through the clear exhaustion. The glowing intensified for a moment, almost blinding them, but then quickly died off, and everything went quiet.

“Did we get them? Did we?” frantically asked Lance, looking around.

“I turned them back into eggs,” said Hunk. “I think I got them all.”

Then the ocean disappeared.

“I guess you really did.”

 

 

The new room was white, but not as glaringly as the first one, and they could actually see its walls this time. They also weren’t alone in it.

“Wow, cool robots,” breathed Pidge.

They really were. Sleek, silver, glowing purple and armoured to the teeth they slowly advanced forwards, towards where the group was sitting.

Keith jumped onto his feet, immediately taking a fighting stance: “I guess we have to kick their asses.”

“Yep, that’s not happening,” said Hunk. “They are too well armed. Besides, I can’t do anything about them as they aren’t organic.”

They slowly started moving backwards, away from the robots.

“Pidge, this is your moment to shine. I know you are good with tech,” said Hunk.

Pidge looked around, agitated. “Do I really have to?” he murmured.

“Yes!” said Lance. “If Hunk had to go on and disclose our secret, which was horrible by the way, then you have to do that too! Besides, we are almost at the wall! We can’t move much further!”

“Pidge,” then interjected Keith, stepping towards Pidge and holding out a hand: “Seriously, don’t stress it.”

“Alright then,” murmured Pidge. “I broke the No Knowledge Stealing rule. Looked into some guy’s head without permission, extracted some other stuff from somewhere else. You don’t need to know what exactly or from where. I was looking for information on the Kerberos mission.”

“Kerberos mission? But why would you-”

Hunk slapped a hand across Lance’s mouth: “You don’t have to say it, Pidge. I _have_ met Matt before, you know.”

“Yeah, Pidge. We still want you to get your magic back,” gently said Keith.

“Wait what?” wanted to know Lance. “Seriously, what are you guys talking about?”

“Pidge…” started Hunk again, but Pidge shook his head: “Nah, he won’t quit unless I tell him, I guess.” He fixed his glasses, then said: “I’m searching for info on the Kerberos mission because my brother and father were on it.”

He stuck out his hand towards Lance and said: “Katie Holt, nice to meet you.”

“What the fuck,” whispered Lance, then a bit louder: “You are a girl?”

“You have such a good eye, Lance, you truly are sharp,” commented Hunk.

“Shut up, you jerk, and you mullet too. Katie, what the fuck?! I thought we had a connection!”

“I only know you for an hour at best!” squealed Katie. “How could we be connected? And call me Pidge. _And_ get this bracelet off of me!”

The robots were almost upon them, their hands already raising the machetes, an axe and multiple knives they were equipped with, ready to blunder them to death. Keith was seconds away from punching the nearest one, metal be damned, when Lance sighed and gave in.

The bracelet disappeared, Pidge breathing heavily in relief. Then she cracked her knuckles, her arms slowly glowing green.

“ _Stop!_ ” she commanded, raising her hands. Jets of green light fired from them, hitting the robots and freezing them in their places. A couple of tense moments later, they unfroze and slowly started moving away from the group.

“Cool,” said Hunk. “What did you do?”

“I convinced them they weren’t-”

The room disappeared.

 

 

“-supposed to attack us, that we weren’t their targets. Huh.”

They were now standing on a rocky slope, mountain peaks all around them and no way to get down.

“I see no impending danger,” said Lance after a tense minute, and Pidge immediately groaned: “Lance…”

The rock that came barrelling down the mountain almost hit Hunk, if it weren’t for Keith pushing him out of the way in the last possible moment.

“Lance!” then yelled Keith. “Stop fucking jinxing us!”

“I’m not doing it on purpose!” protested Lance.

“I don’t care!” yelled Keith back. Then took a step to the left, to let another rock pass.

“Fuck,” quietly mumbled Pidge. “This is just rocks. I can’t do anything about that.”

“Me neither,” added Hunk. “It’s… it’s just _rocks_ , I’m sorry guys. Not my thing, _at all._ ”

Oh yes, thought Lance. This was his moment to shine.

Then Pidge went and ruined it: “Keith, you never actually mentioned what your magic was.”

“Oh man! Pidge! You don’t need that! It’s speed! He’s just fast! Who needs that? Listen, right now you need _me._ The sharpshooter! I can blast those rocks-”

And he stepped forward, avoiding one of them that came rolling down the surface, almost two times his size.

“-to Hell before they even get close to us. Just believe me! Besides, Hunk already gave away our little accident, so it shouldn’t take long.” He pointedly looked at Keith, who was giving him an unimpressed stare right back.

Pidge turned to Keith, but whatever he did must have placated her, as she turned back to Lance with a grin on her face: “Then let’s see what you can do.”

“Alright!” Lance clapped his hands together, and looked back at Hunk, who nodded. Then, with a deep sigh, he turned to Keith. Keith only raised an eyebrow, and raised his hands in a ‘what can you do?’ gesture.

Lance smiled: “Well then!”

The bracelet disappeared.

He took two steps forward, putting himself straight into the path of an oncoming rock. He straightened his arm out in front of him, his index and middle finger straightened in an imitation of a gun. His entire hand started glowing soft blue as he began collecting energy in it, as well as focusing on the approaching rock, becoming more and more aware of his surroundings, his senses sharpening.

The rock was rolling closer.

“Lance, don’t you think you should’ve fired by now?” nervously asked Hunk.

Lance didn’t bother answering. Instead he focused on the energy, carefully regulating the flow of magic to- _There!_

The ball of blue lighting shot out of his fingers faster than a human eye could track it, slamming into the rock (a real boulder, that one) and exploding it into a big number of smaller rolling rocks.

Lance didn’t waste any time with them. They were dust in only a couple of seconds more, and he turned back to the group, victorious, right after blowing up imaginary smoke from the top of his fingers.

“Did you see that? Huh!? It was amazing! And that’s why they call me _ninja sharpshooter_!”

“Who’s ‘they’?” asked Pidge. Hunk just shook his head. Keith looked unimpressed.

Lance begun thinking that his face was just stuck this way.

“Anyhow! I straight up _obliterated_ those rocks! Who rules? _I do_!”

“That was truly wonderful,” deadpanned Pidge.

Before Lance could dab or do something equally terrible, the room disappeared.

 

 

“I’ve decided that I hate white,” mumbled Hunk.

The corridor they found themselves in was white, very long and narrow. In front of them was a polygon of death, with various spikes, fires and other various assorted objects of death poking out from the walls, ceiling and the floor at random but very fast intervals, prepared to impale/burn/blunder/… _kill_ the poor traveller that would dare walk there.

Behind them, a wall was slowly closing in on them, threatening to squash them like bugs.

“Fuck,” mumbled Keith, looking around.

Pidge emphatically nodded. Then added: “Even though this is most likely machinery, I can’t feel anything, which means that the control room is far away. I can’t do anything, I’m afraid.”

Lance, however, looked puzzled. Then he suddenly snapped his fingers and turned to Hunk: “Isn’t it weird, huh, how the traps are almost tailored to us?”

Hunk looked perplexed for a second, then realised what Lance was talking about: “Oh, how we had to use someone else's’ powers each time? How we will probably need to use Keith’s this time? Yeah, it’s kinda weird.”

“But why? Do they see what magic we have available, and then they pick something we still have to ‘unlock’ so that it circles through all our powers?”

“Nah,” Keith shook his head, “this - the whole process - is all automated. It’s led by a system - a very smart one, but still just a system. It’s watching us and learning how to operate. It’s doing its best to kill us, so when it sees what we can do, it changes its tactics so that the next attack can’t be disrupted that easily, at least not by something it knows we can already do. It’s just our luck that we are such a group whose powers don’t overlap too much.”

Lance narrowed his eyes at Keith: “How do you know that?”

“I’ve gone through this before,” admitted Keith, still looking at the floor.

“Aha! I knew it! You _are_ a hardened criminal!” yelled Lance.

“We are on Trial as well, idiot.” said Hunk.

Lance rolled his eyes and turned attention to the deadly corridor in front of them. His eyes flared bright blue as he focused, stretching his senses as far as his magic would allow him

“There’s a kill switch,” he reported after a moment, “right at the end of the corridor. It’s a key that needs to be turned. I can probably hit it no problem!”

He already extended his hand in preparation, but Hunk stopped him: “No, no, nope. You aren’t doing this. We both know that you are a lot more likely to explode the key than to turn it. Besides, didn’t you say before that Keith has Speed magic? He could definitely do this, right Keith?”

Keith gave Hunk a small smile: “Well yeah.”

“Under no circumstances am I allowing mullet to get his magic back! He’s horrible with it!” petulantly said Lance, crossing his hands.

Pidge punched him in the shoulder: “Hey! I’m not dying here because of you!”

“ _Nobody_ is dying here,” said Keith. “Look, Lance, there clearly are no other options.”

“First tell us what you did,” insisted Lance.

Keith took a deep breath, and looked away.

“I broke the No Power Stealing rule, and that’s all you need to know.”

“Because of course you did,” rolled his eyes Lance. “A lowly speedster like you could never actually compete against expert magicians like us.”

“Lance!” Hunk looked shocked, but Keith shook his head: “Nah, don’t stress it. I don’t have time to argue with him.”

“Look, man, everyone knows that you aren’t exactly _fast_ for a Speed wix, you know? This isn’t an argument, it’s a fact,” said Lance.

Keith shrugged: “So what? I can still get the job done, before we are squashed or stabbed to death.”

Pidge peered at the wall closing in on them: “Which won’t be long now if we don’t get moving!”

“Keith, I believe in you!” squealed Hunk.

Pidge nodded: “Me too.”

Lance sulked.

The wall moved closer.

“Lance!” hissed Pidge. “Don’t make me kill you!”

Her hands started glowing green.

“Are you seriously prepared to die before you maybe listen to Keith?” asked Hunk, incredulous.

Lance stayed silent.

“Seriously, Lance!?”

“Maybe I just can’t trust him!” Lance suddenly erupted, throwing his hands up. “Ever think of that, eh, Hunk? Maybe I have a good reason for avoiding him! Try to be a little more considerate!”

“This isn’t just about you, Lance!” yelled Pidge. “It’s all our lives on the line here! You can’t be _that_ selfish!”

“But Pidge! This is Keith we’re talking about!” gestured Lance.

“So what? I admit that I have no clue why you hate him, but even I were in your position, I wouldn’t be willing to die for it! Lance, you can be petty and sulk all you want _on your own,_ when our lives aren’t directly in danger! Now get your head out of your ass and focus!”

Lance turned around, red in his face. He slammed his fist into the wall and cursed under his breath.

Keith’s bracelet disappeared.

He looked relieved and gave Pidge a small happy grin, sparks of red magic already jumping around his body.

Then he disappeared as well.

A few seconds afterwards, the whole hallway followed suit.

 

 

“Is this the last obstacle?” asked Hunk quietly. They were all a bit subdued after the last task, Lance pointedly not looking in Keith’s direction and Keith staring at the floor, Pidge rolling her eyes behind both of them.

The room they’ve found themselves in now wasn’t exactly a room. It was more like an arena, with only one visible entrance far away from them and sand floor, tribunes all around them.

“Yes,” replied Keith. He was staring, focused solely on the dark doors on the other side of the arena, not even blinking. It was kind of creepy.

“It’s… We have to fight a gladiator here.” He paused for a moment, then turned around and directly addressed them: “Behind us, behind those pillars, are three doors. As soon as someone steps through them, they will lock behind you and deposit you somewhere safe. But they won’t be open long, so hurry! You can still escape!”

“But what about you?” wanted to know Pidge. Lance, even though he wasn’t about to admit it, was curious as well. He thought the battle for who gets to escape and who has to stay would be bigger, bloodier, and certainly louder. Just what was Keith thinking?

“Don’t worry about me,” shrugged Keith. “I am where I belong.”

Hunk evidently wanted to say something, but at that moment, a horn blared loudly, making them all jump.

The doors opened with a loud slam. Everyone immediately looked towards the light that was now spilling through, illuminating a figure that stood in the archway. It was the gladiator!

It was a human as far as Lance could see, and a very _built_ one, with rippling muscles and very tall. The gladiator slowly stepped forwards, until the light from behind didn’t obstruct the view anymore and they could see the person better.

Pidge gasped as she recognized the gladiator: “Shirogane?”

“Shiro,” murmured Keith quietly. “Oh Shiro.”

“Wait, _the_ Shirogane? Commander Shirogane?” asked Lance incredulous. Then, after a short moment in which he checked: “Yes it is! It’s Commander Shirogane! But what happened to his arm?”

Indeed, Shirogane’s entire right arm, which was on display as he wasn’t wearing a shirt, was covered in dark grey and purple tattoos - runes, to be precise. The man’s hair was longer than Lance remembered from the mission profile’s photos, and there was no mention of a white streak of hair, nor numerous scars that littered his body from head to toes.

“Fuck, what happened to you?” he asked aloud, almost reaching out with his hand like he could touch him, but Keith slapped it away, probably thinking Lance was about to shoot him.

“No! I told you, guys, you need to go _now._ Run!”

Hunk grabbed Lance’s hand: “Yes, yes, we are going, right now. Come, Lance, let’s go!”

But Lance dug his heels in, as well as Pidge, who loudly protested: “No! This is Commander Shirogane! He was on the expedition with my family! He has to know what happened! I need to talk to him!”

“You can’t!” yelled Keith back. “Don’t you understand? That _thing_ isn’t Shiro, not really, not right now! You can’t _reason_ with it!”

“And how would you know?” screamed Pidge.

Keith didn’t answer, just pushed her towards the back pillars: “It doesn’t matter! Just go! We don’t have time to argue right now!”

_“No!”_

The gladiator - Commander Shirogane - was now almost upon them, a cruel smirk on his lips as he watched the group fight and argue. His arm started glowing purple, and Hunk jumped even further away: “Guys, my magic can’t even touch him!”

They were all quickly moving backwards, but it wasn’t quite fast enough.

“Of course it can’t, it’s Commander Shirogane! He has one of the four corner, builder magics of the universe! He’s like a tank! You can’t stop a tank! Oh man, this is _bad._ We can’t fight him!” Lance squealed.

“You don’t have to! I told you to run!” shouted Keith.

“And leave you with Shirogane to do as you wish? Yeah, think again!”

“Pidge!” screamed Hunk, and both Lance and Keith immediately focused on her. She was right in front of the gladiator, her short legs not helping her as she tried to evade the purple lighting Shirogane threw at her. She was almost struck with it, but she managed to evade it. She scrambled backwards, and fell onto her back. Shirogane raised his arm again, purple light emanating from it. There was sheer terror on Pidge’s face, but they were too far away and too slow to do anything but _watch_ as that deadly lighting energy bolted for her tiny body lying on the sand floor. They had to watch as she closed her eyes in preparation for pain, as the bolt reached-

Everything _stopped_. The bolt of purple lighting centimetres from Pidge’s abdomen, Commander Shirogane, even the air itself was frozen.

Lance could see dust particles hovering in air all around them, unmoving.

His mouth dropped open. “What?” he mumbled. Looking around him, he noticed Hunk and Pidge had same perplexed expression on their face. Then he noticed Keith.

Keith, who was breathing heavily, his wide opened eyes shining bright gold, red whirls of magic slowly, almost lazily whirling around his legs and arms.

“Holy fuck,” exhaled Hunk.

Even Pidge couldn’t help herself: “That’s… Fucking hell, Keith, you could’ve warned us!”

She shimmed away from the lightning bolt, stood up and dusted off her clothes.

“You aren’t really a Speed wix, are you,” she murmured.

He smiled at her: “What gave it away?”

“You are a Time wix! Oh man, that’s so cool!” said Hunk, now a lot less afraid.

“Dude, did you just freeze time around all of us?” asked Lance, fighting not to sound impressed.

“Not just around us, I bet,” said Pidge.

Keith raised an eyebrow in a silent question.

“I mean,” said Pidge, “no one knows that you are a Time wix, right? Which, to be honest, is a hard thing to achieve. You pretended to be a Speed wix in order to ward off suspicions - so you stopped time for a moment, did something, and unfroze time again. To people around you it looked like you just did something super-fast. But!” and at that ‘but!’ she snapped her fingers; “freezing time on a scale of… What? You couldn’t just freeze the surroundings, as other people would surely notice. You couldn’t freeze the whole area, as that would’ve been noticed too. Did you freeze a whole continent?” she wondered for a moment.

Hunk now butted in: “That wouldn't work!”

Pidge glared at him, but he went on: “Sorry, Pidge. No, I mean - freezing just one continent? That would be noticed. Planes or boats arriving or departing, people communicating with residents… Nah, it wouldn’t hold. I bet he froze the entire planet.”

“Think of the moon, Hunk! And Earth’s relative position to other planets? People would notice that too!” rebuked him Pidge.

“So, the entire Solar system!”

“What about other stars? The entire galaxy as a background? We would surely notice our zodiacs changing!”

“Alright, alright, it’s the Universe!” finally admitted Keith. “You got me. I freeze the Universe every time I need to pretend to be a Speed wix.”

Pidge and Hunk looked suitably horrified and impressed, all at once. Lance… Lance didn’t know _what_ to think.

“Hold on,” he said, “Are you telling me that Keith here is in reality a Time wix? Not just a shitty Speed one?”

“A seriously powerful Time wix who’s been hiding from the Buro for a while, yes,” nodded Hunk. “Holy shit, dude, you are _awesome!”_

Lance poked him in the ribs: “Hey!”

“Sorry, Lance, but it’s true! Come on, admit that you are impressed as well! You don’t meet a builder every day!”

Keith protested at that: “Nah, I’m no builder. Simply having a corner power doesn’t immediately make me one. Besides…” he trailed off, his gaze locking onto Shirogane. “I have something else on my mind right now.”

With that, he disappeared for a moment, only to reaper a second later with a dagger in his hands and a dark red billowing cloak on his back.

“Where did you get that?” asked Pidge.

“Past me doesn’t need it anymore,” said Keith. “I’ve… I’ve done this before. And I made a mistake. A grave one, that needs to be fixed.”

He swallowed something back, a pained expression on his face as he gazed at them: “Do you understand now?” he asked, looking them directly into their eyes, one by one. “I… It’s my fault that Shiro’s here, that he’s like this. If it weren’t for me… I need to fix this. _Now._ And I can’t do it with you here. Please, leave me behind.”

“So this is what they meant by staying behind,” guessed Lance. “Fight with an unbeatable gladiator, huh?”

“Are you sure you will be fine? Shirogane’s a Power wix, he won’t go down easily,” said Pidge.

Keith smiled at her: “That shouldn’t be a problem. Don’t worry about me, Pidge. Now go!” he ordered them, and at this point, Lance actually turned around and followed Hunk.

They stopped in front of the doors, waiting for Pidge.

“Do you think they will be alright?” asked Lance.

“Don’t tell me you are worried for him?” asked Hunk. “For _Keith?_ ”

“Nah, just wondering.”

Keith now stood in front of Shirogane, his right hand cupping Shirogane’s face, his left splayed on his chest. He was looking up at him with such a fond look on his face that Lance felt like he was intruding on something very private. Keith quietly mouthed a name to the frozen man, smiling contentedly. His red magic was now swirling around Shirogane as well, enveloping his legs and making its way up his arm, battling with the purple magic it found there.

Keith looked _happy,_ like standing right next to Commander Shirogane was exactly where he belonged. 

“You know,” said Pidge as she reached them, “I think they will be just fine.”

And with that, time unfroze.


End file.
